John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I have read it. That is your problem—I have read it. Work Choices was a big change and it was a very desirable change. It was the subject of a ferocious fear campaign by the unions. I notice that that ad that represents a board meeting with businessmen talking about penalty rates and overtime says that it is perfectly legal to take those away without anything in return. That is untrue. It is not legal to do that and it has not been legal to do that, as a result of the fairness test. That does not trouble the trade union movement of Australia. It does not trouble the Labor Party.

What really matter are outcomes. If I look at the Australian labour market now and back when Work Choices was introduced, what do I find? I find that there are 370,000 more people in jobs. I find that 85 per cent of those additional 370,000 jobs are full time. I find that wages have risen and continue to rise, so much so that they are now 21 per cent higher in real terms—that is, 21 per cent above the rate of inflation. In other words, their wages have gone up with inflation and they have got 21 per cent on top of that since March 1996. The other thing I also find is that strikes are at their lowest level since 1913.

If the Leader of the Opposition had watched my interview on The 7.30 Report last night, which apparently he did—or maybe Hawker Britton watched it and gave him a briefing paper on it—then he would have seen, or Hawker Britton would have seen, that I said that one of the goals of the coalition in the next term of government, if we are returned by the Australian people, is that for the first time we might be able to have a full employment economy.

The Canadian Prime Minister mentioned at lunchtime today—or it might have been in his speech; I forget which—an anecdote involving one of my predecessors in this office, Joseph Benedict Chifley. A true Labor man was Joseph Benedict Chifley—he was a very true Labor man.

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